Having done a lot of counting on the way, then re-counting, we have now delivered the collected Express and Star vouchers to the Queen Street offices and handed them over, packaged up into bundles of five hundred: our first target!

A big thanks to everyone on the plots who handed them in, posted them in the box, or dropped them into the shop or cajoled, bribed and extorted a few extra from friends, family and neighbours.

A second set of thanks to Landywood, Cheslyn Hay and Moat Hall Primary schools who added to our collection. Moat Hall’s contribution of two thousand, six hundred and forty eight (yes, really!) was an amazing effort: thank you.

The final number of vouchers we collected, with your help was three thousand two hundred and forty five!

Now we await the results. Staff at the Express and Star and Home Serve will decide what proportion of the thirty thousand pounds we are given to put towards our planned Great War Legacy Garden project. So far we have been working with Cheslyn Hay Scouts, the parish council and Cheslyn Hay Historical Society (who also donated some vouchers) and the Royal British Legion.

If anyone has any ideas, information (it would be great if we could find records of people who had allotments in Cheslyn Hay before or during the First World War) or skills you need to drop us a line (either here or on Facebook) or simply drop by the site one day and ask for a committee member.

But, in the meantime, thanks for the support of the voucher collection.